The Book Borrower

by Alice Mattison

Morrow, 288 pp., $24

In Alice Mattison’s tightly structured novel The Book Borrower, two young mothers, Toby Ruben and Deborah Laidlaw, meet in a park while out strolling their babies. When Deborah loans Toby a book called The Trolley Girl, a friendship begins, one that will last over 20 years, until tragedy strikes. The novel follows Toby and Deborah through the years as they raise their children, care for their husbands, argue (and make up) with each other, and go about their lives. This is an ambitious novel that interweaves two stories at once, and Mattison is not always successful; the effort she takes to make these two intertwined stories connect feels strained and is often unconvincing. Some of the interactions between the characters (particularly the males) fail to come to life. Mattison is most successful when exploring the nuances of the friendship between feisty Deborah and practical Toby, and it is this portrait of a prickly relationship that ultimately holds the novel together.

This article appears in December 10 • 1999.

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